Opportunities for Talented People with Physics Training Mechanics Scholars Luncheon Texas A&M University Opportunities for Talented People with Physics Training David Toback Department of Physics and Astronomy Texas A&M University E-mail: toback@tamu.edu http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/

Good news and Bad news Good news Bad news: You have been identified as being in the top 1% of all physics performers in Physics 218 You get a free lunch Bad news: You clearly have the talent and the “right stuff” to get further training in physics You have to listen to me give a pitch on why you should SERIOUSLY think about taking more physics classes

Common Myths People Jobs: I’d like to start by listing some common myths People I don’t know ANYONE who does physics except my high school teacher and my Professor from this last semester Frankly, they’re kinda dorky and weird like on Big Bang Theory Jobs: My high school advisor said “You’re good at math and science? You should be an engineer!” If you have a physics degree, you can either be a professor or a high-school teacher. Either do research or teach Physics is all theory, engineering is where you do REAL things

Warning: My answers may be more blunt than you wanted… Common Myths cont… More common myths Money: All the people I know with physics degrees don’t dress well so they must be poor Have you seen the car they drive? Uhmm… Physics? Really? What do people who get physics degrees DO anyway? I’ve heard about some cool physics things but they aren’t relevant to the “real world” The cool stuff isn’t covered in any of the classes Warning: My answers may be more blunt than you wanted…

Let’s talk Jobs and Money first After I’ve convinced you not to worry, then we can talk about the fun stuff…

High School Teacher or a Professor only? No! People who say that don’t know what they were talking about!

High Unemployment? Fact or Fiction? Unemployment rate in Percent

Depends on what kind of degree you get… : Ok… what kind of job? Depends on what kind of degree you get… : Bachelors Masters Ph.D.

Ok… Lets say I get a bachelors… then what Ok… Lets say I get a bachelors… then what? Most people go on to get advanced degrees, but many get jobs right out of college Highest degree attained by physics bachelors 5 to 8 years after graduation

Who’s going to hire me? Companies hiring people with physics degrees in Texas Advanced Micro Devices Alcatel Allstate Insurance Company Alpha Sim Technology, Inc. Avant! Corporation Ball Semiconductor, Inc. Boral Material Technologies Camp, Dresser & McKee Control Systems International Cypress Semiconductor Dell Computers DRS Technologies, Inc. Fairfield Industries Helena Laboratories Corporation Insurdata Kellogg, Brown & Root Kelly Scientific Resources Law Office of Robert Swafford Litton-TASC, Inc. Litton-TASC, Inc. Lockheed Martin Milsoft Integrated Solutions Mobilestar Network Motorola National Instruments National Semiconductor Corporation Nortel PGS Tensor Radiant Photonics Raytheon Reltec Corporation Sercel, Inc. Sony Semiconductor Southwest Research Institute Technical Alliance Recruiters Traas Ionics Corporation United Space Alliance Verizon Wireless

Q: Is the money any good compared to other majors I might choose? A: Yup!!! Bottom line: There are many reasons not to get a physics degree, but making enough money isn’t one of them http://physicsworld.com/blog/2009/07/big_bucks_for_physicists.html

Other questions.. More years of school? How am I going to convince my mom to pay for that? Believe it or not, in graduate school your tuition is paid for you Even better… you are often given a salary to take classes and do research! Compare to Law school or Med school which can be about $250k in loans

Switching topics… Do physicists do anything useful or interesting? Yes… The whole reason for doing physics is that it’s the most interesting thing in the world to do!

What are the cool things physics research have produced? Radar Lasers The Internet Medical imaging (MRI) Optical fibers Power: Nuclear, Solar, Hydro, Fusion(?) Semiconductors (chips for computers, DVD players, video games etc…) Superconductors Lots more…

Example Differences Between Science and Engineering Scientists came up the understanding of how to make the perfect wing for an airplane Scientists figured out how to make electronics out of materials Scientists figured out how to make the Internet Engineers worked to find which materials made it cheaper and lighter Engineers figured how to put more chips on a circuit board Engineers figured out how to make cable cheaper so lots of people could use it

What are the interesting physics areas? Current Research areas: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology Relativity, Origin of the Universe, Dark Energy Condensed Matter & Materials Physics Atomic/Laser Physics Nuclear physics What’s inside the nucleus? Particle physics What’s inside a proton? Dark Matter, LHC String theory/Theory of Everything What are particles made of? Quantum Mechanics (which is also kinda neat !)

Interested in Learning more of the “Cool” Physics? Physics department now offers a course entitled “Big Bang & Black Holes” Covers Stephen Hawking’s “Brief History of Time” Cross listed as ASTR/PHYS 109/119 Tier 2 Science Distribution Class Answers many of the questions you want to know about Cosmology Stars Black Holes General Relativity & Quantum Mechanics Particle Physics Etc…. http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/

Interested in Undergraduate Research? Physics department has a long history of award winning undergraduate research in many areas: Applied Physics Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology Atomic Physics Condensed Matter Physics Materials Physics Nuclear Physics Particle Physics Quantum Optics String Theory… http://www.physics.tamu.edu Scholarships available to the types of students who do well on Challenge Exams ;-)

Keep in Touch! Interested in a physics degree? Minor? Double major? Applied physics? Pick up a Department Brochure http://www.physics.tamu.edu/ Contact the undergraduate advisor: Ms. Sherree Kessler 979-845-7738, skessler@physics.tamu.edu .

Good Luck on your finals!

Depends on what kind of degree you get… let’s do them one at a time: Ok… what kind of job? Depends on what kind of degree you get… let’s do them one at a time: Bachelors Ph.D.

Let’s say you get a Ph. D. Will that improve your earning potential Let’s say you get a Ph.D. Will that improve your earning potential? Yup!!!

Ok… What can you do with your degree?

Extra slides on some of the research we do here at the Physics Department at Texas A&M University

A “Theory of Everything” String Theory, Grand Unified Theories, Theory of everything… Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A.

Ocean Temperature Profile Remote Laser Sensing Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A.

DNA Sequencing lab-on-a-chip using nanotechnology Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A. lab-on-a-chip using nanotechnology

High Tc Super-conductors Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A. structured 1,000 A cable for Bi-2212

Characterization at the Nanoscale Scanning Tunneling Microscopy e.g. an atomically flat surface of GaSb/InAs Electron flow, classical, quantum, wave picture, 218!, tunneling

Supersymmetry Experiments Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and CMS at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN High energy frontier; Big toys Searching for Supersymmetry, the Higgs boson High energy particles, no more classical kinetic energy Yes that’s a person!

Applied Physics at Texas A&M Physics is crucial to many important advances Computing (classical and quantum) DNA sequencing and other biotech areas Laser Remote Sensing Magnetic Devices and Data Storage Nanotechnology and Sensing Optical Technology Superconductivity (low Tc and high Tc) Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A.

Fluorescence from laser cooled ions

The Cyclotron One of two University based Cyclotrons in the US Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A. One of two University based Cyclotrons in the US

“Slow Light” Welch: Group Velocity of Light can be reduced Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A.

Quantum Mechanical Foundations Fry, Walther: Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Experiment based on atoms Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A.

Collinear Raman Generator A new light source to study new physics Extension of EIT ideas to molecular systems Photoionization with single-cycle pulses. Possible extensions of our technique: studying complicated motion of complex molecules probing ultrafast electronic dynamics in atoms. t

Devices based on Molecular Nanomagnets Large Magnetic Moment Potentially useful for: Magnetic storage Quantum Computing

Nanomagnetic Sensing Teizer: Micro- and NanoSQUIDs Contact to Professor prior to application helps! Early summer R.A.